Berkley’s Betrayal

Democratic Nevada congresswoman and U.S. Senate candidate Shelley Berkley voted against a job-creating land privatization bill that she herself co-sponsored, the latest in a string of examples of Berkley’s placing national Democratic Party interests ahead of her state’s.

Under pressure from Democratic special interest group The League of Conservation Voters, however, Berkley pulled her support for the bill.

League of Conservation Voters president Gene Karpinski sent a letter to Berkley on June 18 urging her to vote against the legislation.

“LCV urges you to vote NO on H.R. 2578, the so-called Conservation and Economic Growth Act, an over-reaching assault on America’s lands and wildlife that blocks or rolls back conservation laws on federal lands, guts environmental review, and privatizes public lands,” Karpinski wrote.

Berkley released a statement after the vote June 19 stating, “I am a strong supporter and original co-sponsor of the Yerington Land Conveyance and Sustainable Development Act, authored by my Nevada colleague, Representative Mark Amodei. It is extremely unfortunate the House did not have the opportunity to vote on this important job-creating measure except as part of a larger legislative package that has no chance of passing in the Senate and faces strong opposition in Nevada.”

Berkley joined the majority of her party in voting against the measure in the House.

Berkley’s statement does not definitively announce that she voted against the measure, and leaves out an important piece of context involving an environmental group with close ties to Democratic House leadership, Nevada political insiders pointed out to the Free Beacon.

“I come here tonight grateful for the powerful advocacy of the League of Conservation Voters in the fight to preserve our planet for future generations. I think it is appropriate to cite a Native American saying that, ‘The real owners of the land are not yet born,’” Pelosi said in her remarks at that event.

“Shelley Berkley needs to explain why she sided with environmental groups over northern Nevada,” Heller for Senate spokeswoman Chandler Smith said in a statement. “Instead of supporting legislation that would have created jobs in Yerington, she chose to side with the League of Conservation Voters. This is typical Shelley Berkley, saying one thing and then doing another.”

According to Wynn, Berkley told him in a phone call, “Steve, I know it’s terrible. My husband is a doctor. He hates it, too. But if I don’t vote for it, she will punish me.”

Wynn continued, “‘She’ being Nancy Pelosi. I said, ‘Shelley, every politician that’s ever sold out their constituency has had a lame, terrible rationalization like the one you just gave me. Don’t ever call me again.’”